(2024)
The Logic, the Lore, and the Legacy
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Christianity claims to have the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
This is an extraordinary claim, so it is only fair to ask whether Christianity makes an extraordinary case—or even a credible case.
This online book is a concise inquiry into three issues:
(1) The Logic. Are the fundamental claims of Christianity consistent with reason and morality? Does the religion depict a Creation that is consistent with what we observe? If the Christian God designed and gave us our brains, are his actions and commandments consistent with their process and conclusions? Does this religion make sense?
(2) The Lore. The accuracy of Christianity is completely dependent on the revelations in the Bible. The religion is true only if the book is true. So who wrote the New Testament? What were their motives, their sources, their limitations? Is the evidence contemporaneous with the events? Are the multiple perspectives consistent? Did their predictions that came true? Is this book reliable?
(3) The Legacy. Did this religion make the world a better place? And does it now? Does the power structure that promotes it have a record of peace and harmony, or of discord and dishonesty? Would we be better without it?
1. The Logic
1.1 Does an Ancient Worldview Make Sense Today?
1.2 Why Create Us Sick, and Command Us to be Well?
1.3 Did God Make Mistakes?
1.4 Would God Pick Favorites?
1.5 Was Human Sacrifice Really Necessary?
1.6 Why Must Faith be Blind?
1.7 Why Must Salvation be Arbitrary?
1.8 Omniscient? Omnipotent? Benevolent?
1.9 Why not Show Yourself?
1.10 Is God Good?
1.11 God has a lot to be Sorry For
2. The Lore
2.1 The Context
2.2 Epistles—The Earliest Evidence
2.3 The Gospels
2.4 Thessalonians
2.5 Galatians
2.6 Corinthians
2.7 Romans
2.8 Mark
2.9 Matthew
2.10 Luke
2.11 John
2.12 Acts
2.13 Revelation
2.14 The Modifications
2.15 The Message
2.16 The Marketing
2.17 The Machine
3. The Legacy
3.1 Christianity has Done America more Harm than Good
3.2 What Would Jesus Really Do?
3.3 Why Keep Us Ignorant?
3.4 Secularism on the Rise
3.5 An Inconvenient Diversion
4. Alternatives
1. The Logic
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
— Epicurus (300 BCE) (attributed by Church Father Lactantius in On the Anger of God c. 313 CE)
Doubt as sin.—Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature—is sin! And notice that all this means all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness, intoxication, and an eternal song over waves in which reason has drowned.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (1881)
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
— Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
If you lived two or three millennia ago, there was no shame in holding that the Universe was made for us. It was an appealing thesis consistent with everything we knew; it was what the most learned among us taught without qualification. But we have found out much since then. Defending such a position today amounts to willful disregard of the evidence, and a flight from self-knowledge.
— Carl Sagan, “A Universe Not Made For Us” in Pale Blue Dot (1994)
1.1 Does an Ancient Worldview Make Sense Today?
Christianity took root in a Bronze Age myth and was spread by an Iron Age empire. Its authority spread through conquest and government mandate, and continues because institutions profiting from our fear of death instill it in children before they are old enough to think. But we have learned a lot more about the universe. Does the old worldview still make sense?
1.2 Why Create Us Sick, and Command Us to be Well?
The fundamental premise of the Old Testament is that God made greed, lust, and other sins inherent in human nature and then blamed us for them. Reportedly, God sent a snake to tempt Eve to eat an apple, and since she fell for this entrapment scheme, her children were doomed to suffer the consequences of “knowledge” and “free will.” Privy to our thoughts, this divine lawmaker acts as our spiritual detective, prosecutor, judge, and executioner. Would a good God do this?
1.3 Did God make Mistakes?
Unhappy with his creation, this omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent God flooded Earth to start over.[1] But his second try also failed to produce humans that met his impossible standards. In Sodom and Gomorrah, they went way beyond eating apples.
1.4 Would God Pick Favorites?
To ease the suffering of one “chosen” nation God offered a covenant: license to take land, commit genocide[2], and impose slavery[3] upon other nations, in exchange for laws either obvious (no murder or theft), arbitrary (no pork or shellfish), or evil (human and animal sacrifice[4] ). When the Chosen Ones inevitably broke his weird laws, he made them suffer more than the others. Would a good God do that?
1.5 Was Human Sacrifice Really Necessary?
For his third try, this God devised an even stranger plan: to save humanity (from himself?) from its sinfulness (that he gave us?) by impregnating a virgin and having her son brutally executed after a three-year ministry in a remote and mostly illiterate province. Even if such vicarious sacrifice were moral or logical, one wonders what was “sacrificed” as Jesus was dead for (allegedly) only three days of his (supposedly) infinite life.
1.6 Why Must Faith be Blind?
God’s third attempt (post-Eden and post-Flood) presents a bizarre dilemma: to benefit from this “sacrifice” we must have “faith” in it. But the brains he gave us require evidence for faith, and our only evidence started as decades of oral legend, then Gospels and Epistles full of hearsay and contradictions, then twenty centuries of argument, schism, persecution, corruption, and sectarian war. This is our instruction manual for life?
1.7 Why Must Salvation be Arbitrary?
The best predictor for anybody’s religion is simple geography. Folks born in the wrong place[5] (or the wrong time[6] ) get no evidence of the good news. Presumably, this condemns six out of Earth’s eight billion souls (and countless billions born earlier). An honest and charitable man raised as a Hindu in India is doomed, whereas an American serial killer can “accept Jesus” while on death row and be saved. Surely, if an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent God wants us to know the truth, about what he is and what he wants us to do, he could do better than this. What nonsense!
1.8 Omniscient? Omnipotent? Benevolent?
Not this God. He encourages massive military slaughter[7], sends natural disasters without warning, and watches on as cancer takes children. Supremely proud yet jealous of other gods; wrathful when disappointed but slothful when needed; fascinated by our sex lives, greedy for donations, gluttonous for animal sacrifice—he seems like a perfection of the seven deadly sins.
1.9 Why Not Show Yourself?
The Christian God’s most preposterous trait is hiding from those from whom he demands praise and obedience. Instead, we must guess, worry, debate, and fight about what is “good” in God’s eyes. Why not tell us what you want?
1.10 Is God Good?
His morality seems quite different from ours. He demanded a war that kills 60,000 to avenge one insult[8], and allowed genocide so one “chosen” race might have Lebensraum.[9] “Family values” include prostituting one’s wife[10], and boiling and eating one’s child.[11] “Justice” involves punishing innocents (especially children) for the crimes of others[12], and forcing rape victims to marry the rapist (after the father is paid[13]). And he seems to have a creepy persistent interest in what we do when naked.[14] Really?
1.11 God has a lot to be Sorry For
The church has been working on “apologetic” arguments for twenty centuries. Masquerading as “logic,” these begin with a conclusion and argue backwards—unlike reasonable inquiry, which looks first at the evidence and uses logic to see where it leads. The best examples are listed on the following page.
| Apologetic Argument | Response |
The “Cosmological” Argument: The universe needs a First Cause—things don’t just pop into existence out of nothing. |
This circular reasoning assumes everything needs a cause but omits to explain what caused God; physics (more reliable and more humble) predicts a causeless universe.[15] |
| The “Teleological” Argument: Scientific laws and conditions on Earth are “fine-tuned” to allow life. |
This reasoning is backwards; life evolved under the conditions that existed. Do rivers miraculously decide to flow along state lines, or is causation reversed?[16] |
The “Moral” Argument: There are objectively good values and God gave them to us. |
Atrocities advocated in the Bible contradict our internal moral code.[17] Moses and his people never would have made it to Sinai if they needed to be told not to murder or steal. |
| The “God of the Gaps” Argument: science cannot explain everything; God explains what science cannot. |
At best this proves an ever-retreating God ruling a kingdom defined by current scientific ignorance.[18] This would have “proved” that the sun was Apollo’s chariot 3,000 years ago. |
“Lord, Liar, or Lunatic”—Jesus said he was God, so he was, or he lied, or was crazy. |
“Legend” is more likely. Textual analysts question whether Jesus claimed to be God and conclude his followers exaggerated.[19] |
| The “Noble Lie”—We need religion to make people behave. |
This neither proves religion true nor tells which of hundreds of religions is the true one. Good people are good without religion, but religion can make good people do bad things. |
“Pascal’s Wager”—better to believe and guess right than to disbelieve and guess wrong. |
One would need to guess which of numerous religions were right. And, is God so gullible to fall for this self-serving strategy? |
| “Burden of Proof”—You can’t prove God does not exist. |
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”—those imposing their worldview on others have the burden of proof.[20] |
Christianity is Prevalent. |
Mostly by coercion—and twenty centuries of war, colonialism, and genocide have won only 25% of the Earth’s population. |
Perhaps the best apologetic argument is that multiple eyewitnesses wrote about Jesus’ ministry, miracles, and postdeath reappearance. But this approach also falls apart under scrutiny, as explained in Part II.
2. The Lore
Christianity was founded on a history book, but the New Testament is shockingly unreliable. Twenty years passed between Jesus’ death and any discussion in the first Epistles, and forty years passed before his life and ministry were documented in the Gospels; contradictions and exaggerations increased at each step.
People need to use their intelligence to evaluate what they find to be true and untrue in the Bible. This is how we need to live life generally. Everything we hear and see we need to evaluate—whether the inspiring writings of the Bible or the inspiring writings of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama.
The Bible is filled with discrepancies, many of them irreconcilable contradictions. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did not write the Gospels, … and the book of Acts contains historically unreliable information about the life and teachings of Paul.
— Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted (2009)
I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. This is a damnable doctrine.
— Charles Darwin, The Autobiography (1887)
No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
— 2 Peter 1:21
The consensus of modern scholarship is that 2 Peter cannot have been written by Peter himself.
— James Dunn, Beginning from Jerusalem (1989)
The simple fact is that the New Testament as we know it is a helter-skelter accumulation of more or less discordant documents, some of them probably of respectable origin but others palpably apocryphal, and that most of them, the good along with the bad, show unmistakable signs of being tampered with.
— H. L. Menken, Treatise on the Gods (1930)
2.1 The Context
Rome conquered Palestine in 63 BC. As usual, the Romans let the local religion continue, but repression and taxation created a tempestuous environment during the following six decades.
Since their god Yahweh was unwilling or unable to protect them from Rome, Jews noticed that other nations had god-men with special powers. Both the Egyptian god Horus and the Roman god Mithras asserted the trifecta of divine insemination, miracle performances, and resurrection appearances.[21] Greece had Dionysus (son of Zeus, turned water into wine), Orion (son of Poseidon, walked on water), and Asclepius (son of Apollo, cured the sick). Augustus Caesar had his adoptive father Julius Caesar deified, claiming the title Divi Filius (“Son of God”).
Suffering under Roman repression, the Jews needed a demigod too. Their prophets foretold (sort of) that they would get one soon—a “messiah”—a warrior “anointed” by God to defeat the Romans and reclaim the throne of David.[22] Several would claim the title.[23] The Old Testament also prophesized God would resurrect the people of Israel (not just one special person).[24] It prophesized that a savior would be born of a “young woman” (not a virgin).[25]
God would reestablish the “Kingdom of God” (on Earth, not in Heaven).[26] He would resurrect the righteous (bodily on Earth, not spiritually in Heaven).[27]
Within this context, a new sect of Judaism would emerge as a different religion altogether, by adapting those prophesies to merge with stories of a wandering wonder-working prophet (one of many) with the common name Yeshua (Jesus). As the legend grew, powers of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian competitors were added to his repertoire.
Most (not all[28]) historians agree there was a man named Jesus who lived, preached, and posed as the “messiah,” resulting in crucifixion. Nobody knows when he was born (c. 6-4 BCE).[29]
Nobody deemed him worthy of documentation during his life.
Nobody bothered to record the date of his death (c. 30-33 CE).
Like many of his contemporaries, his message was “apocalyptic”—Jews should live well and repent before he would rule during the end times, which would come in their lifetime.[30] When he was crucified instead of crowned, his followers revised the story.
2.2 Epistles—The Earliest Evidence
Paul’s letters (49-59 CE) are the earliest Christian writings.
A postcrucifixion convert, Paul knew nothing and wrote nothing about Jesus’ life on Earth (birth, baptism, teachings, parables, healings, exorcisms, trial). Paul’s authority was based solely upon his subjective experience of “visions” and/or “voices” of Jesus (in multiple contradictory accounts) as if in a dream or hallucination.[31] If this seems convincing, compare it to the five sworn affidavits supporting the Mormon Church, and the thousands of modern Catholics who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary.
Paul never wrote a comprehensive theology. His letters were “occasional”—addressing specific squabbles among churches already divided about Jesus’ message. Divisions were profound, as it was difficult for an oral legend of magical prowess to remain consistent as it spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Several controversies arose among the Corinthians alone: leaders vied for power, the role of women was questioned; the efficacy of “prophesy” and “speaking in tongues” had to be clarified; and prostitutes were used in church.[32]
Paul made two fundamental points:
- Salvation comes only though faith that God sent Jesus and resurrected him to atone for our sins—not through works.[33]
- The end times had already begun, and Jesus would return to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth during the lifetimes of those then living.[34]
Others spreading the good news (“gospels”) disputed both points.
Several epistles have questionable (“pseudepigraphal”) authorship. The New Testament includes 13 letters of “Paul” but we now know Paul wrote only 7 of them. One written as “James” contradicted Paul, writing “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” because “faith without works is dead.”[35] Two claiming to be by “Peter” (an illiterate fisherman who spoke Aramaic) are written in two different styles of polished Greek.[36]
2.3 The Gospels
None of the gospel writers claimed to be eyewitnesses to Jesus.
None of the authors claim the names we now use for each gospel; they got those names a century after they were written.[37]
No eyewitnesses were around to confirm or deny the tales when they were written (c. 70-95). The story survived for decades only as oral legend (extremely unreliable, despite modern confusion that oral cultures reproduce histories accurately[38]). While contemporary secular historians noted the existence of Christians[39], the gospels are our only evidence of Jesus’ life.
So let’s look at all of this evidence in chronological order, starting with four key epistles and then the four gospels.
2.4 Thessalonians
The earliest of all Christian writings (c. 49-51), Paul warned the Thessalonians to stop fornicating, because Jesus would return during their lifetime “like a thief in the night” (or, perhaps because of said fornication, “like labor pains upon a pregnant woman”).[40] But it did not happen quite so fast, requiring Paul to preach for 15 more years.
2.5 Galatians
In another early letter (c. 49-51) Paul asserted that he got his knowledge straight from Jesus, not from any man.[41] This sets up his authority to debate Cephas (a/k/a Simon “rock of the church” Peter): “I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned,” referring to a debate about what Christianized Jews can eat and with whom.[42] Paul condemned fornication again, but tacitly recognized doing it with your slave (“the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son”).[43] Here Paul also favors an “adoptionist” position on God’s fatherhood.[44]
2.6 Corinthians
A few years later (c. 53-57) Paul wrote to the Corinthians to address controversies that had arisen after his teachings there: leaders vied for power, the role of women was challenged; the efficacy of “prophesy” and “speaking in tongues” had to be clarified; and prostitutes were used in church.[45] His response was a rousing condemnation of prostitution, homosexuality, drunkenness, and women in leadership roles (“Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law says.”).[46]
2.7 Romans
Paul’s longest letter (c. 55-57) begins with his understanding that Jesus grew from the seed (“spermatos“) of David and was adopted by God at the time of his resurrection.[47] The remainder expounds upon his central theme that belief trumps behavior and obedience to the Jewish law (with the usual exception for “unnatural sexual behaviors”).[48]
2.8 Mark
“Mark” (c. 70 CE) is the earliest account of Jesus’ life. This author wrote shortly after Roman soldiers destroyed the Temple[49] and assured the losers of the First Jewish Revolt that Jesus would return to rule (within their lifetimes[50]) using revisionist history to explain why the Messiah had to be a sufferer, not a conqueror.
Miracles are few and secret; the message is delivered in parables specifically so outsiders would not understand. Indeed, Mark playfully suggests his entire gospel is a parable:
He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!” Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?[51]
Thus it seems Mark was not writing with the intention of producing a historical narrative; it’s more likely his gospel is an allegorical reaction to the Jewish-Roman war. This is a morality novel, not a history.
Notably, “Mark” includes no nativity story: the gospel starts with God’s adoption of Jesus upon his baptism (not upon his resurrection, as Paul wrote).
Nor does “Mark” include any sighting of a resurrected Jesus. The original ends at 16:8 with women finding an empty tomb (“They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”)[52]
2.9 Matthew
The Gospel “According to Matthew” (c. 80 CE) had to admit Jesus would not return as soon as Mark wrote.[53] About half of Matthew’s text is copied from Mark, including the story of Jesus meeting Matthew (told in the third person). He tells the earliest nativity story (after 80 years), with the first-ever reference to a virgin birth; and the earliest resurrection story (after 50 years), with the first-ever reference to postcrucifixion sightings of Jesus.
Matthew’s first theme is that salvation is awarded based on works rather than faith. He says Jesus did not come to replace the old Jewish law; rather, one must follow it better than the Pharisees in order to be saved.[54] He adds the concept of charity: in the end times all people will be divided into the charitable “sheep” (who go to the good place) and unkind “goats” (bad place). To those who believe and pray in Jesus’ name but lack good works, Jesus says: “I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers.”[55] Quite contrary to Paul’s message.
Matthew’s second theme is presenting Jesus as the new Moses. He does this through “fulfilment citations” to Hebrew scripture. But Matthew was unfamiliar with the Hebrew text (he was trained on the Septuagint) so these citations fail under scrutiny.
Fulfillment Fails
He cites Hosea 11:1 (“Out of Egypt I called my Son”) to explain why Jesus fled Herod to Egypt.[56] |
The relevant chapters in Hosea discuss “Israel” as a nation rather than a future person.[57] |
| He cites Isaiah 11:1 to say that the Messiah “will be a Nazarene” |
The word “NZR” means “branch” (of David’s family tree).[58] |
| He cites Isaiah 7:14 to say the Messiah would be born of a virgin. |
Isaiah wrote alma (young woman); not betulah (virgin).[59] |
| He cites Zechariah 9:9 in telling that Jesus entered Jerusalem both “on a colt” and “on a donkey.” |
He misses the Hebrew poetry trope of repeating similar words to emphasize that something generally similar would happen. |
2.10 Luke
The author of “Luke” (80-85 CE) is the only gospel who wrote in the first person, which shows that he (and the others) could have testified to first-hand observations if they had any. Instead, Luke told his friend Theophilus that he has “carefully investigated everything” including “many” other gospels and the “first eyewitnesses.”[60] Luke copied extensively from Mark, but selectively deleted predictions that the Kingdom of God would arrive within the original apostles’ lifetimes.[61] And, whereas Mark hinted that his entire gospel was parable rather than history, Luke presented the tale as actual history.
While Matthew used Jesus as a mouthpiece to inform Jewish Christians how to behave, Luke establishes a foundation myth of how a Jewish cult came to be inherited by gentiles. While Matthew presented material in thematic clumps (i.e., the Sermon on the Mount as a parallel to Moses’ sermon on Mount Sinai), Luke writes in a more linear fashion, presenting the “true” story of how it happened (e.g., all the Sermon on the Mount sayings, but at different times and places).
Luke, like Matthew, presents the genealogy, nativity, teachings, and resurrection of Jesus. But they are all different. Matthew’s genealogy goes back to Abraham; Luke’s genealogy goes back to Adam through a different line. Luke adds Jesus’s Ascension to Heaven, which Matthew seems to have forgotten.
Luke’s nativity story is entirely different from Matthew’s. Scholars opine that Chapters 1-2 were added later to refute “Adoptionist” views of many early Christians.[62] This explains why Chapter 3 begins like a beginning, and why the earliest manuscripts God says “on this day I have begotten you” after Jesus’ baptism (supporting Mark’s view that God adopted Jesus).
2.11 John
We do not know who wrote the fourth gospel (c. 90-95) but we do know it was not the “beloved disciple” of the same name, who was raised to speak Aramaic rather than Greek, was specifically referred to as “illiterate” by Luke, and would have been 90-95 years old at the time (triple the average lifespan).[63]
John does not paste much from Mark—he was too creative for that. Rather, he continues his predecessors’ pattern of incremental embellishment, magical enhancement, and anti-Semitic fiction. First, in a dramatic new opening, John departs from the adoptionism of Paul and Mark and the immaculate conception of Matthew and Luke (“In the beginning there was the word”), continuing the pattern of moving Jesus’ divinity earlier in time.
Most of John’s creativity exhibits itself in (dubious) sayings of Jesus:
- Only John wrote that Jesus explicitly claimed to be God (“I Am”) and did so multiple times (if true, why would the others omit it?).
- While Paul wrote of no miracles, and in Mark they were secret, John has Jesus telling his disciples to publicize these “signs” (if true, why would the other gospels state the opposite?).
- Only John tells of Jesus telling Nicodemus he must be born “from above” not “again” (wordplay on the homonym “anothen,” which works in the author’s Greek but not in Jesus’ Aramaic).
- To emphasize the Jews’ blame for killing Jesus, John quotes a verbatim transcript of his private conversation with Pilate (how?).
- While Paul wrote of Jesus’ kingdom coming to Earth in the future, John has Jesus declare it already here, but on a spiritual plane.[64]
2.12 Acts
In Acts, the author we now call “Luke” tells stories about Paul differently than how Paul explained in his own letters: about Paul’s postconversion travels[65], that Paul was subservient to the original apostles[66], the conference with apostles to decide how Gentiles can convert[67], and that Jesus’ return was not imminent.[68]
Luke also contradicts himself: instead of ascending the same day of his resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days proving it first.[69]
Strangely, in Chapter 9 Paul converts because he saw a light that others did not see (though they heard a voice), whereas in Chapter 22 Paul heard a voice others did not hear (though they saw the light). While Acts stated historical and geographic facts correctly, this merely shows he had access to maps and stories, as did secular contemporaries who did not travel with Paul.[70]
2.13 Revelation
It reads like an acid trip through Dante’s Inferno, but read in proper context the Bible’s final book is a simple “airing of grievances” in the currently popular apocalyptic style.[71] Written by a different “John” (approximately at the same time as the Gospels) after surviving the Roman sack of Jerusalem[72], the imagery portrays Rome (a beast on “seven hills”) as the latest empire to oppress the Jewish people.
Notably, there no “Rapture” mentioned in Revelation—the concept was invented by nineteenth-century preachers.[73] Indeed, Revelation was one of many books predicting that the end times would come during their lifetime, but all such authors throughout the ensuing twenty centuries had two things in common: (1) they got attention, and (2) they were wrong.
In a stark departure from Jesus’ message of love and mercy, the message of Revelation is that the vast majority of humans will die in fire. While New Testament contradictions like this are too numerous to count, the most significant are listed below.
| Conception Contradictions[74] Paul has God declare Jesus to be his son upon the resurrection. Mark has God adopt Jesus at his baptism. Later gospels Matthew and Luke have him as the son of God upon his birth. The final Gospel John has him as the Word of God in eternity past. They keep moving it back. |
| Christmas Contradictions[74] In Matthew, wise men follow a star over a “house” (oikia) and tipped off Herod, who killed all the babies under two (which never happened—contemporary historians Tacitus, Suetonius, and Josephus documented many bad things Herod did but nothing like this) while Jesus’ family fled to Egypt. In Luke, Joseph and Mary stayed in a “manger” (phatne) because they had to go to his hometown for a census (which never happened—the nearest census was ten years later (6 CE) under Roman governor Quirinius and going to hometown was not required). |
| Resurrection Contradictions[75] All five sources disagree about Jesus’ resurrection. The original version of Mark ends abruptly with an empty tomb and no sightings of a risen Jesus. In Matthew and Luke, Jesus appeared to the disciples once (Matthew has it in Galilee, Luke has it in Jerusalem) and only in Luke is there an “Ascension” to Heaven. In John, Jesus reappeared multiple times. This is the key story and they all differ. |
| Salvation Contradictions[76] Paul wrote salvation comes only in faith that Jesus died and rose to atone for our sin. Matthew wrote salvation comes only through charity and following Jewish law. If salvation is the essence of religion, then these are two different religions. |
| Apocalyptic Contradictions[77] Apocalyptic prophets like Jesus and John the Baptist preached that they were living in the End Times. Paul extended that to within a generation, as did Mark. When that did not happen, the others had to admit it would just be “soon.” |
| Heavenly Contradictions[78] Most of the Old Testament has no concept of the afterlife except for a simple “grave” (sheol) where the good and evil alike endure a shadowy nonexistence. About two centuries before Jesus, the concept of bodily resurrection on Earth emerged. After visiting the Greeks, Paul fused their notion of the righteous being rewarded after death in an earthly Kingdom of God. John moved this kingdom to an aerial plane. The Good Place keeps changing; the Bad Place might not exist. |
2.14 The Modifications
Inconsistent in message, unreliable in delivery, never clarified or updated—each book of the Bible is clearly the product of multiple imperfect men rather than one perfect God. Only 9 of the 27 books are correctly named: 9 were forged (claiming false authorship) and 9 misattributed (anonymous and mistakenly named by others).[79]
We do not have the originals. We do not even have the first few copies of the originals. Scribes made additions, including:
- Mark’s resurrection story[80]
- Luke’s nativity story[81]
- the only Trinity reference[82]
- John’s story of Jesus defending an adulterous woman with “he without sin should cast the first stone”)[83]
- Paul’s comment that “women should be silent in church.”[84]
Contradictions outnumber verses, and versions of mistranslated words outnumber words.[85]
2.15 The Message
The New Testament is consistent on some issues. Masters should beat their slaves, and slaves should endure it.[86] Women should be quiet and submissive.[87] Families should dissolve for the sake of the church.[88] Pontius Pilate (whose brutality and disrespect for Jews is well-documented) allowed a Jerusalem crowd to vote on releasing a rebel prisoner (though there was no such custom in any Roman province).[89] Fodder for anti-Semitism abounds.[90] Generations of “apologists” contorted to make sense of these myths.[91]
2.16 The Marketing
Christianity spread due to marketing rather than miracle, surpassing pagan competition with four powerful innovations: (1) consideration for the poor, sick, foreign, and female; (2) encouragement of ethical behavior; (3) insistence on exclusivity; and (4) promising everlasting bliss in the afterlife.
Paul improved the marketing plan by convincing the apostles that gentiles may convert to Christianity without converting to Judaism first (which left pork on the menu and made circumcision unnecessary).[92] With this sales pitch, Christianity grew steadily (40% per decade) but remained a minority until Emperor Constantine legalized it in 313 CE.[93]
2.17 The Machine
After Constantine’s battlefield conversion, the most powerful empire in history harnessed the religion to secure control over its subjects. Roman Emperors promoted Christianity’s spread, provided funding, distinguished orthodoxy from heresy[94], persecuted unbelievers, placed cronies in leadership[95], and cited it for legitimacy. At the 325 Council of Nicaea, Constantine established the new official creed, set up its hierarchy, forbid certain views inconsistent with his priests, and selected December 25 for the observance of Christmas (as it was the birthday of his other favorite god, Sol Invictus).
Christianity was thereafter empowered by (and corrupted by) government, so that it could expand through oppression rather than persuasion. Charlemagne used it to control his subjects, and other kings in Europe followed his lead, while allowing the church to monopolize education. Spain spread it via conquest of the Caribbean, and other European empires spread it in America and the Pacific through colonization and genocide.
3. The Legacy
Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse….
The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.
— Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007)
Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and scream and cry forever… but He loves you! He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money!
— George Carlin, Back in Town (1996)
Without it, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes Religion.
— Steven Weinberg, quoted in Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006), p. 249
Most Christians mean well, but look at the results of twenty centuries:
- Economic Imposition. From the ten-percent tithe of biblical times, to the medieval slavery of monastery serfs, to modern “prosperity gospel” charlatans[96], the church has never stopped fleecing its flock.
- Political Corruption. From the time of Constantine, through medieval warlords, and modern-day fascists, the church has allied with dictators for mutual benefit and legitimacy.[97]
- Obstruction of Science. To defend its ever-shrinking realm of scientific ignorance, the church has quashed free inquiry, since the time of Galileo[98] through today’s opposition to evolution, curing AIDS, stem cell research, global warming, and COVID vaccination.
- Oppression of Women. By depriving women of leadership roles, limiting marital freedom, and restricting reproductive rights, the church has strived to keep women subservient second-class citizens (in accordance with the scriptures).[99]
- Interference with Children. Catholic Priests are notorious for giving boys “tender pastoral care”; the broader problem is well-meaning parents indoctrinating children and diverting their time and energy from education to mythology.
- War and Genocide. Seldom has Christianity spread but at the point of a sword. Popes ordained crusades and genocide in Europe, Asia, America, and the Pacific. As Voltaire wrote, “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
- Inquisition and Persecution. The Church has pursued dissenters in its ranks with the same “fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency” as it has nonbelievers.
- Suppression of Thought. Burning at the stake no longer an option, Christianity survives in an age of reason only by using existing power structures to brainwash people before they are old enough to reason, proving Mark Twain’s adage, “it is easier to fool people than to convince then they were fooled.”
3.1 Christianity has Done America more Harm than Good
Fundamentalists insist we are a Christian nation, but ignore the founders’ emphasis on keeping religion out of government. The Bill of Rights enshrined the Establishment Clause in its First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Benjamin Franklin (a self-described “thorough deist”) expressed outright disdain for religion in such beautiful deadpan that it went over the heads of Puritan and Quaker contemporaries.[100]
George Washington was deliberately ambiguous about his personal belief, he was unambiguous about excluding Christianity from any role in government.[101]
John Adams (a converted Unitarian who rejected the Christian Trinity) confirmed in a government document that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”[102]
Thomas Jefferson recognized the First Amendment as a “wall between church and state” (and later wrote his own gospel, cutting and pasting the wise sayings of Jesus while removing all miracles and claims to divinity, which he found unbelievable).[103]
Our greatest national crime—slavery—received constant support from scripture and pulpit.[104] After emancipation, the church strived to undermine education, impede science, and oppress minorities.
Christianity’s oversized role in America has retreated as education increased, but its legacy of hypocrisy and demagoguery remain. Many who focus on unborn souls as today’s chief virtue-signaling issue proudly disdain already born souls that are poor, sick, foreign, or the wrong color.[105] Politicians strive to “out-Christian” rivals while getting more hateful and less charitable each term.[106]Fundamentalist congregations object to the Sermon on the Mount as “liberal talking points.”[107] Evangelicals vote overwhelmingly for an arrogant, sexist, racist, rich, and dishonest President who maximally violates the maxim “What Would Jesus Do” in words, deeds, or tweets.
3.2 What Would Jesus Really Do?
Christianity made the world a better place. At first. (The bar was low—Greco-Roman gods did not care about morality or charity.) That the new faith rested on myth would have done less harm had it not been hijacked and weaponized by the Church and the Empire. Now the most ardent Christians ignore Jesus’ commandments to love your neighbors, give up all possessions, and forego public prayer; they pass laws to the contrary.[108] Jesus would not claim modern Christianity as his own.
3.3 Why Keep Us Ignorant?
While apologists often hide behind the (current) inability of science to explain things like consciousness and the Big Bang, they (missing the irony) do not apologize for the fact that Christianity delayed science for centuries. The ancient Greeks conceived of atoms, and the Romans were using concrete, but progress slowed markedly between Constantine’s conversion and the Enlightenment. Only the freedom of thought granted by Christianity’s retreat has made us more educated about the universe, more peaceful, and less prejudiced.
3.4 Secularism on the Rise
Polls show a rising percentage of Americans say conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country, and the percentage is higher among younger and more educated Americans.[109] Interestingly, while many Americans report getting more “spiritual” during their life, more of them report getting less “religious” than getting more “religious.”[110]
3.5 An Inconvenient Diversion
Christianity’s most insidious effect is that its extraordinary claims fool billions of good smart people into wasting time and energy chasing salvation in an afterlife, instead of maximizing their time on this pale blue dot amidst genuine heavens.[111] We don’t need the Bronze Age myth or its Iron Age successor anymore. What are the alternatives?
4. Alternatives
There may be some sort of god(s), but when you imagine a world created by an omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent creator, it would be much different than the one humans have lived in for the last two millennia. We can be happier and make the world better after realizing that mythology has neither a monopoly on morality[112] nor the answer to “life, the universe, and everything.”[113]
Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment. The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (1991)
Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that’s what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.
— Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942)
Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.
— Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)
Five Humanist concepts suggest roads to happiness and meaningfulness:
Kindness. Humans are naturally kind, whether we have a religious framework or not; when we harness this drive (on an individual level or through social charity) we are happier and feel more powerful.[114] No supernatural reasons are needed to make men kind; only through kindness can the human race achieve happiness.[115] Churches may give a portion of their income to charity, but giving directly is better. Modern concepts like effective altruism help show the best causes.
Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a mental state focusing on awareness of the present moment. It involves paying attention to thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging them. It includes techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, and self-awareness exercises.[116] Prayer without myth—the secular side to Buddhism has much to offer.
Science. Science is a process of asking questions, not a set of answers. Rather than the apologetic approach of working backward from given answers, Science uses observations, hypotheses, and testing. So while the church told us the Sun goes around the Earth, science tells us the Earth goes around the Sun (and that evolution is critical to modern biology, and vaccines are critical to postpandemic society, etc.). Free inquiry into nature is fun and challenging; it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however reassuring.[117]
Philosophy. Greeks outlined general approaches to finding meaning and fulfillment 300 years before Jesus. Epicureans sought joy though strategies to find contentment and friendships. Stoics found value in the four pillars of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Romans were taking both of these philosophies to the next level[118] before Christianity intervened, but we can reclaim them now.
Community. Soon the majority will recognize these truer paths to reality, wisdom, and joy. Then churches will not be silent on Sundays—they will be full of fellowship and charity, if devoid of mythology and ignorance. Secular humanist “churches” exist—look for Unitarian Universalist chapters and secular Buddhist establishments.
Notes
[1] There is no scientific evidence of any such flood; rather, the Old Testament simply borrows a materially identical story in the Epic of Gilgamesh (written much earlier, in Babylon, where the Jews would have learned it in captivity).
[3] Exodus 21:20: “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.”
[4] Judges 11:29-39 (a military victory is awarded to a father for his burnt offering of his daughter).
[5] As Sam Harris has argued in his debates, for example, in his 2011 debate with William Lane Craig at the University of Notre Dame on “Is Good From God?“
[6] The church invented the concept of “Limbo” for those who die unbaptized, including Homo sapiens who lived during the 198,000+ years before Jesus.
[7] Exodus 15:3: “The Lord is a man of war.” 1 Samuel 18:7: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” 2 Samuel 18:7 reports 20,000 casualties. Exodus 32:28 reports 3,000 casualties. 2 Chronicles 13:17 reports 500,000 casualties.
[10] Genesis 12:10-20 (Abraham provides his wife to the Pharaoh in exchange for political favor); Genesis 20:1-18 (he offered her to King Abimelech).
[11] 2 Kings 6:29; Proverbs 23:13.
[12] For example: Numbers 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27; Leviticus 26:16-39; and Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Regarding children, see Isaiah 13:16: “Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses looted, and their wives violated.” See also Psalm 109:9.
[14] Leviticus 18 provides extensive guidance about who may have sex with whom and when; for the avoidance of doubt, Leviticus 20 contains another long list. Note that according to the Bible, it is preferable to offer your daughter to be repeatedly gang raped all night than for a man to be so “shamed” once (Genesis 19:1-10). When asked why they care about other peoples’ sexual sins, preachers cite self-defense—they don’t want God to send a flood or earthquake that might punish the innocent!
[15] Popular physicist Sean Carroll addresses this in his essay “Why is There Something, rather than Nothing?” (February 8, 2018) found on his Preposterous Universe blog.
[16] Dan Barker, Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became America’s Leading Atheists.
[17] Christopher Hitchens, “The Immorality of the Ten Commandments.” Slate, August 27, 2003. <https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/08/dump-the-ten-commandments.html>.
[18] Neil deGrasse Tyson, “The Perimeter of Ignorance.” Natural History Magazine, November 2005.
[19] Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2014), pp. 126-128.
[20] Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York, NY: Random House, 1996).
[21] See Richard C. Carrier, “Dying-and-Rising Gods: It’s Pagan, Guys. Get Over It” (March 29, 2018). Richard Carrier Blogs. <https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/13890>.
[23] For example: Judas of Galilee, who led a revolt against Roman tax census in 6 CE; Theudas, who led a short-lived revolt in 44-46 CE; and Simon bar Kochba, who inflicted severe losses on Rome and ruled as a messianic prince in Jerusalem from 132-135 CE.
[24] The most cited prediction is Isaiah 53:7-11: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life.” But this chapter (and those that precede it) clearly show that this is a past-tense discussion of Israel as a nation, not one of a future person. See also Isaiah 12:2.
[25] Isaiah 7:14 uses the term almah to mean a young woman; a later Greek translation (the Septuagint) took the liberty to call her parthenos (a virgin).
[26] Bart D. Ehrman, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020), p. 108.
[28] Not all; some well-credentialed, peer-reviewed historians question the very existence of a “Jesus” (primarily based on the nonexistence of contemporary evidence, the ambiguous visions recounted in Paul’s epistles, and the reliance of all other “evidence” on the Gospel of Mark). See, for example, Richard Carrier, On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014).
[29] December 25 was chosen in the 300s because it was the birthday of Constantine’s other favorite god, Sol Invictus.
[30] Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, the Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (1999) notes that Jesus’ mission started with the apocalyptic John the Baptist and that the most reliable quotes of his ministry urged good behavior before the imminent end times.
[31] Contrast (as to what Paul’s companions saw or heard) in Acts 9:1, 22:6, and 26:12. See also: Gerd Lüdemann, The Resurrection of Christ: A Historical Inquiry (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books), p. 19; Richard Carrier, Jesus From Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ (Durham, NC: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020), p. 50ff; and Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, pp. 183-204.
[32] Perhaps in competition with the Temple of Aphrodite (Corinthians 14:34-35).
[33] For example, Romans 3:28.
[34] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. See also 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.
[35] James 2:24-26. Martin Luther moved this epistle from his bible to an appendix because it was contrary to his “faith alone” position.
[36] Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.”
[37] Irenaeus bestowed the four names in Against Heresies (c. 180) after Papias guessed at Mark and Matthew for reasons that revealed that he had texts different from the current ones. Note that the Book of Matthew discusses Matthew meeting Jesus in the third person, copied from the same source that Luke copied. Further, the author of Luke/Acts (an eyewitness to the disciple John, if not to Jesus) specifically described John as “illiterate” (agrammatos).
[38] Bart D. Ehrman, in Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior (2016), cites psychologists and sociologists in a fascinating analysis of how the memory of eyewitnesses can change—and be corrupted further via oral legend—even in cultures that thrive on oral lore.
[39] In 93-94, Josephus noted in Antiquities of the Jews that a small number of Romans worshipped Christ, the brother of James. In 107, Tacitus in Annals noted that Nero had blamed the Great Fire of 64 on Christians. In 110, Pliny the Elder wrote to the emperor asking whether Christians should be punished. In 110, Suetonius wrote in Life of Claudius that “Chrestus” led Jews in Rome to riot during the reign of Claudius (41-54).
[44] Galatians 4:4-5: “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
[46] 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. In Paul’s defense, the misogyny may be a forgery.
[47] Romans 1:1-4 refers to Jesus “who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
[50] Mark 9:1: “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.” Mark 13:30: “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place.”
[52] Scribes added resurrection sightings to the remainder of Chapter 16 more than a century after it was written (see the New Oxford Annotated Bible, 5th ed., p. 1863).
[53] Matthew 24:44: “you do not know the hour when the Son of Man is coming.”
[54] Matthew 5:17; Matthew 5:20.
[57] See the rest of Hosea 11 and the preceding discussion of Israel in Hosea 9-10.
[61] Compare Mark 9:1 (where Jesus says “Truly I tell you, there are some who are standing here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power“) and Luke 9:27 (with “Truly I tell you, there are some who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God”). In Mark they see the end times; in Luke they just go to Heaven. Likewise, in Mark 14:62 Jesus tells the High Priest that he would see the end times, but when Luke 29 pastes the same story, the High Priest would not be around to see it.
[62] Bart D. Ehrman, “The Gospel of Luke without a Birth Story” (December 24, 2018). The Bart Ehrman Blog: The History & Literature of Early Christianity. <https://ehrmanblog.org/the-gospel-of-luke-without-a-birth-story/>.
[63] Acts 4:13. Regarding lifespans in the Roman Empire at the time, the average man who lived to be 15 could expect another 33-39 years of life—see Mary T. Boatwright, Imperial Women of Rome: Power, Gender, Context (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2021), p. 87.
[64] See, for example, Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede (London, UK: A. & C. Black, 1910).
[65] Compare Acts 9 (Paul converts, goes straight to Damascus, then straight to Jerusalem, where he was feared) and Galatians 1 (Paul spent three years in Arabia and Damascus before going to Jerusalem, where he was unknown).
[66] Compare Acts 15:1-30 (Paul seeks judgment from Peter and James on how to convert Gentiles) and Galatians 2 (Paul rebukes Peter about forcing Gentiles to act like Jews, implicitly comparing Peter to false preachers who emphasize works and the law in Galatians 3).
[67] Compare Acts 15:29 (requiring obedience to a reduced set of diet and sex laws) and Galatians 2:10 (“[T]he Jerusalem church asked only one thing, to remember the poor.”).
[68] Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 7th edition (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019), p. 288: “in virtually every instance in which the book of Acts can be compared with Paul’s letters in terms of detail, differences emerge.” Cf. Carrier, On the Historicity of Jesus at 9.1: “Acts tries very hard to contradict Galatians.”
[69] Compare Luke 24 with Acts 1.
[70] For example, Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews) and Suetonius (The Twelve Caesars).
[71] It begins with a lengthy address to seven churches on the Anatolian coast (blaming them for praying wrong and threatening their children with death).
[72] The author claims to be “John,” but is clearly not the apostle of that name (whom Acts 4:13 notes was illiterate), and clearly not one who shared Jesus’ ministry of “love” and “forgiveness” (as neither word appears in the book).
[73] Nor in any other book of the Bible. The concept of “Rapture” was invented in the 1830s and popularized by many since who have two things in common: (1) their predictions of imminent doom did not come true and (2) they made money. Notably, when Matthew 24:30 refers to one of two people in the fields being “taken,” that was a bad thing—you wanted to be “left behind.”
[74] Romans 1:3-4: “[H]is Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
[75] Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, pp. 134-135; Matthew 28; Luke 24; John 20.
[76] Romans 3:28; Matthew 25:31-46; Matthew 5:20.
[77] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 13:30.
[78] Daniel 12:2; see also Ehrman, Heaven and Hell, p. 108ff.
[79] Bart D. Ehrman, Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible’s Authors are Not Who we Think They Are (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2011).
[80] Julie M. Smith, “The Ending of Mark’s Gospel (May 24, 2014). Brigham Young University New Testament Commentary [blog]. <https://www.byunewtestamentcommentary.com/the-ending-of-marks-gospel/>.
[81] See Bart D. Ehrman: “It has widely been recognized that the infancy narrative of Luke chapters 1-2 were a secondary and later, possibly final, addition…. [T]he appearance of John the Baptist in 3:1-2 reads like the beginning, not the continuation of the narrative…. [T]he genealogy of Jesus makes little sense in chapter 3 after his baptism…” In “Did Luke’s Gospel Originally Contain a Virgin Birth?” (December 12, 2023). The Bart Ehrman Blog: The History & Literature of Early Christianity. <https://ehrmanblog.org/did-lukes-gospel-originally-contain-a-virgin-birth/>.
[82] 1 John 5:7-8 was inserted during the 14th century (Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, p. 485).
[83] John 7:53-8:11. See Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, “Is ‘Let Him Who Is Without Sin Cast the First Stone’ Biblical?.” Christianity Today, April 23, 2008 [web only]. <https://www.christianitytoday.com/2008/04/without-sin-cast-first-stone/>.
[84] Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, p. 402.
[85] A great list is was collected by Dan Barker in Bible Contradictions (August 8, 1985), available on the Freedom From Religion Foundation website.
[86] Luke 12:47: “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows.” 1 Peter 2:18-19: “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.”
[87] 1 Timothy 2:9-11. See also 1 Corinthians 14:34: “Women[a] should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.”
[88] Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29.
[89] All four Gospels repeat this absurdity: Matthew 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-16; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:38-40. The thought of Pontius Pilate releasing a Jewish rebel at the request of a Jewish crowd is preposterous. According to Josephus in The Jewish Wars and Philo in Embassy to Gaius, Pilate oppressed the Jews of Jerusalem to the point of revolt multiple times, and was later fired by Emperor Caligula for being too harsh to the Jews.
[90] For example, in John 8:44 Jesus refers to Jews as “children of the devil,” and in Matthew 27:25 the Jews accept blame for Jesus’ crucifixion: “his blood be on us and on our children.”
[91] Their rationalizations are sometimes erudite, but usually childish or disingenuous. For example, in Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis insisted that Jesus can only have been “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord” without contemplating a “Legend” option. See also The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, a minister pretending to be an agnostic and asking leading questions to quack “experts,” and the apologetic works of William Lane Craig (who is repeatedly trounced by freethinkers in countless debates available on YouTube).
[92] Acts 15:19: Paul convinces James to declare that “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”
[93] Rodney Stark, Rise of Christianity (New York, NY: HarperOne, 1996). Conspicuously, Constantine murdered his wife and son after converting.
[94] Many other gospels competed for “canon” status—named Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary Magdalene. Numerous variants of Christianity competed for “orthodox” status: Gnostics (who believed that the material world is evil, and that the spiritual world is accessible by secret teachings); Marcionites (who believed that Jesus was a god, not a man, sent by a merciful New Testament God to save us from the wrathful Old Testament God); and Ebionites (who believed that Jesus was a man, not a god, and that Gentiles must convert to Judaism to be Christians). See Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003).
[95] Peter Heather, Christendom: Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300 (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022), pp. 60-107.
[96] In 1991, for example, Pat Robertson asked for money to save America’s soul from Marxism and promised dividends in return; nowadays Joel Osteen promises God-given Texas-sized wealth in exchange for donations to his church.
[97] The first international treaty signed by Nazi Germany was with the Vatican, as was the first treaty signed by Fascist Italy. The Vatican, however, did not apologize for its role in the Holocaust until 1998, a half-century after Germany.
[98] Catholic apologists defend the treatment of Galileo by insisting it was “only” house arrest, that he was “only” threatened with torture, and that his chief crime was lying to censors about his heliocentric publications (thus assuming the propriety of censoring science at all). See Rodney Stark, Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2016). Pierre-Simon de Laplace reputedly vindicated Galileo somewhat when Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly asked him what role God played in the construction and regulation of the heavens: “Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis.”
[99] Corinthians 14:33-34: “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” See Annie Laurie Gaylor, Woe to the Women—The Bible Tells Me So: The Bible, Female Sexuality & the Law (Madison, WI: Freedom From Religion Foundation, 2004).
[100] See Ben Franklin’s posthumous autobiography (1791) and his article “How to Secure Houses, &c. from LIGHTNING: “It has pleased God in his Goodness to Mankind, at length to discover to them the Means of securing their Habitations and other Buildings from Mischief by Thunder and Lightning.” See also his 1780 letter to Richard Price: “When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.” For more on Franklin’s aversion to religion, see Christopher Hitchens, “Free and Easy: Probably Nothing Afforded Ben Franklin as much Pleasure as the Applause and Income he Received from People who didn’t Know he was Kidding.” The Atlantic Vol. 296, No. 4 (November 2005): 163-164.
[101] Washington wrote to a group of clergy who protested in 1789 against a lack of mention of Jesus Christ in the Constitution: “You will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” In that same year, he wrote to the Baptists of Virginia, a distinct religious minority in that state: “If I could conceive that the general [that is, the federal] government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure … no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”
[102] Treaty of Tripoli (1797). Adams’ private correspondence with Jefferson is fascinating: Adams praised both the “general Principles of Christianity” and the wisdom of deist Voltaire and semi-covert atheist David Hume (June 28, 1813). Jefferson responded: “in extracting the pure principles which [Jesus] taught, we would have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to them” (October 12, 1813). Adams replied: “This would be the best of all worlds if there were no religion in it!” (April 19, 1817), to which Jefferson agreed while praising the “doctrines of philanthropism and deism taught to us by Jesus of Nazareth” (May 5, 1817).
[103] Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, dated January 1, 1802. See also The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels (St. Louis, MO: N. D. Thompson Publishing Co., 1902). (Originally posthumously published 1895.)
[104] This issue led the Southern Baptists to break ties with their northern half in 1845; they did not apologize for supporting slavery and segregation until 1995 (but remain unapologetic about excluding women from church leadership). See Glen Jeansonne, “Southern Baptist Attitudes Toward Slavery, 1845-1861.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1971): 510-522.
[105] Regarding abortion, in The Rise of Christianity sociologist Rodney Stark discusses Christianity’s appeal to women as one of the strengths that helped its early rise. He notes that early Christians were among the first to oppose abortion—but only because of the threat that it posed to mothers (as the procedure had a 50% survival rate, but only husbands had the power to decide whether it was done, and during a time when having a second daughter could impose significant hardship).
[106] Former President George W. Bush allegedly promised: “There’s no way I’ll ever be out-Texan’d or out-Christian’d again,” masterfully portrayed in the movie W. He wasn’t, and led the United States on two Middle Eastern crusades (the latter based on an outright lie), delayed stem cell research, and birthed an anti-female Supreme Court.
[107] Another phenomenon of such hypocrisy is the recent trend of evangelicals to reject mention of the Beatitudes (e.g., blessed are the meek, peacemakers, etc.) as “liberal talking points.” See Aila Slisco, “Evangelicals are Now Rejecting ‘Liberal’ Teachings of Jesus.” Newsweek, August 12, 2023. <https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706>.
[108] On possessions: Mark 10; Luke 12, 14, 18; Matthew 19. On public prayer: Matthew 5 and 6.
[109] Pew Research Center, “Little Voter Discomfort with Romney’s Mormon Religion, Section 2: Religion and Politics,” § “Religion’s Influence on American Life” (July 26, 2012). <https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/07/26/section-2-religion-and-politics/#influence-on-american-life>.
[110] Asta Kallo, “Around 4 in 10 Americans have become More Spiritual over Time; Fewer have become More Religious” (January 17, 2024). Pew Research Center. <https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/17/around-4-in-10-americans-have-become-more-spiritual-over-time-fewer-have-become-more-religious/>.
[111] Carl Sagan, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980): “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” See also his diction from Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), read by Sagan in a clip on YouTube.
[112] See Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (New York, NY: Free Press, 2010): “Just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim Algebra, we will see that there is no such thing as Christian or Muslim morality.” See also Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2004).
[113] Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1979).
[114] Dalai Lama, see The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living (Hampton, NH: Chivers North America, 1998).
[115] Bertrand Russell, “Why I Am Not a Christian” in Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects ed. Paul Edwards (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1957).
[116] See: Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2017); and Robert Wright, Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2017).
[117] Carl Sagan, Cosmos (1980).
[118] On the Roman development of Epicureanism, see De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) (c. 54 BCE) by Lucretius. See also discussions in Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2011). On Stoicism, see Meditations (c. 175 CE) by Marcus Aurelius.
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